When We Were Young
by Catalina H
Summary: When he can't sleep, Sirius and Remus show Harry some pictures they found while cleaning, and he gets a glimpse into his parents and their friends' lives when they were young, and an understanding of how time and a war can change people. -ONESHOT-


**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or it's characters, or anything of the sort.**

**A/N: My brain was in Harry Potter mode, and I saw a few little snidbits from the Marauders' time, so I decided to make a oneshot. I may use it as an intro to an actually story later on, but as of right now it's standalone. Enjoy!**

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A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Harry couldn't sleep. His mind was racing with thoughts about what Voldemort was up to, what the Order was doing, and, more importantly, his upcoming hearing at the Ministry.

Giving up on trying to sleep, he made his way down to the kitchen for a snack. When he got there, he found his godfather and Remus sitting at the table with a bottle of FireWhisky, staring at an envelope laying in front of them.

It was a moment before they noticed Harry's arrival. Remus was the first to speak.

"Can't sleep?" he asked lightly, but Harry could hear the effort his former professor had put into making his tone not sound strained.

Harry shook his head in reply, but then nodded toward the envelope and asked, "What's that?"

"Some pictures we found earlier," Sirius answered, glancing up at his godson, but returning his gaze to the envelope in front of him.

"Would you like to see?" Remus offered. "I'm sure there's some pictures of your parents in here as well."

Nodding briefly, Harry walked over to the chair Sirius had pulled over for him.

Harry saw the look that passed between the two Marauders as they opened up the envelope and pulled out the pictures. He could tell how difficult it was for them to relive the past. It was the same look they had when they would tell him stories of his father, sadness.

The first picture was of four young boys with their arms around each other and laughing. Harry had no doubts who they were. One looked just as Harry had when he was younger. The other black-haired boy had a haughty, but elegant look about him, one that, had Harry not known who he was, would've made him unrecognizable as the man sitting next to him. The light-haired almost sickly looking boy next to him had the shy air about him that gave the opinion that it was the first time he'd laughed in a long time, something Harry would have the same guess about the man sitting across from him. Harry's teeth clenched as he looked at the last short, chubby, mousy-haired boy on the end.

Flipping to the next picture, Sirius let out a dry, faint chuckle, a ghost of a smile flashing across his gaunt features. The young black-haired boy from the previous picture had aged a little, and was trying, only somewhat successfully, to ride a muggle skateboard as a brown-haired girl the same age rode along next to him giving instructions.

"Who's she?" Harry asked, pointing to the girl at the picture.

Remus's smile fell slightly as he looked at his friend. But Sirius, albeit with a far off look in his eyes, answered with a small grin, "Rebecca. She was one of my best friends." Glancing back at the picture, he explained, "She actually grew up a few streets over, so we hung out all the time on holidays from school, which drove my mother mad. She was a muggleborn," he added, seeing his godson's confused look.

"She was in Gryffindor with us," Remus added, seeing Sirius getting lost in memories. Looking back at Harry, he added, "Her and Lily were close as well."

Chuckling as he flipped to the next picture, Remus showed Harry the picture of the four Marauders and Rebecca, all dressed up in costumes ranging from a zombie to an astronaut. "That was Halloween our second year."

Sirius smiled. "We definitely had the best costumes."

"That's because we were about the only ones who dressed up," Remus retorted.

Harry smiled, but then noticed the next picture. Rebecca, who looked a couple years older than the previous picture, was in the library at Hogwarts with a redhead, both looking deep in thought as they flipped through textbooks. He pointed to the girl in the picture with Rebecca and looked up at his godfather questioningly.

Sirius nodded. "That's Lily."

"They had the top marks in our year," Remus commented.

"Cause they spent all their time in the library," Sirius remarked with a slight eye roll.

Remus smirked. "Not _all_ their time."

Sirius smirked as well, and Harry got the impression he was missing out on an inside joke, but both men seemed lost in their memories for the moment.

The next picture grabbed Harry's attention. It was of his godfather, looking not much older than Harry was now, and Rebecca. The young Sirius looked just as handsome as he did in the picture Harry had of his parents' wedding day, and though Rebecca still had the plain look she'd had in the first picture Harry had seen of her, there was still a beauty that he couldn't describe. But as he looked at the picture, where his laughing teenage godfather had caught Rebecca around the waist and was attempting to throw her in the lake, though she took him with her, Harry realized what it was. Watching the two teenagers try to dunk each other under the water, Harry noted that they had a carefree air about them that was enviable.

Looking up at his godfather, Harry saw that once again, Sirius was somewhere else as he stared blankly at the picture. A glance over at Remus told him that Sirius wasn't the only one reliving that day.

"This was our last day at Hogwarts," Remus muttered quietly as he picked up another picture.

Harry recognized the Gryffindor common room, where his parents and their friends were all gathered on or on the floor beside the couch in front of the fireplace. All of the teenagers in the picture were wearing a wary, and almost sad, expression. Understandably so, in Harry's opinion. He didn't know how he would feel if he knew it was the last day he would ever be at Hogwarts, especially in the midst of a war.

Sirius smiled at the next picture, and Remus asked, "That's the day you got your motorcycle, isn't it?" Sirius nodded as Harry looked at the picture, which had a much happier appearance than the last. It was in front of an old brick garage, where a motorcycle was parked, and standing behind it was Sirius with Rebecca sitting on his shoulders, both with their arms out flexing their muscles.

"Her brother had worked at that garage while he was in school, and was able to get me a deal," Sirius commented. "Bec dragging me along when she went to visit him at work was what got me interested in motorcycles in the first place."

"Was her brother a mechanic?" Harry questioned.

"He'd worked there before he graduated, but after he finished school he became a police officer." Sirius flipped to the next picture, and showed it to Harry. "There was the first Order, or at least part of it."

Harry saw his parents, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Rebecca, as well as, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Moody, and a few others he didn't recognize. His parents and their friends didn't look much older than the picture of their last day at Hogwarts.

The next picture was of his mother in a white wedding dress and Rebecca in a pale blue dress, with their arms wrapped around each other, both smiling at the camera.

"She was your mother's maid of honor," Remus informed Harry quietly.

Harry looked to the next picture, where the wedding party was dancing. He saw his parents, Sirius and Rebecca, and Remus and a girl he didn't recognize.

"That was Mary, she was also in our year at school, roommates with your mum and Bec," Sirius told his godson, seeing his curious glance.

As he watched, Harry saw the picture's occupants switch partners to where now Sirius and Lily were dancing together, Remus and Rebecca, and James with Mary. Harry smiled at how happy they all looked.

He received a slight shock as he saw the next picture. It was an unmoving muggle picture of his godfather and Rebecca in a pool hall. Neither looked out of place as they stood side by side with their faded blue jeans and dark t-shirts, both with a pool stick in one hand and a cigarette in the other, behind a pool table that had two pints of beer sitting on the edge. This wasn't the surprise for Harry, but the look in their eyes was. Unlike the previous pictures, where the occupants moved around and expressions changed, this one captured a single moment. In this picture, neither occupant looked like the carefree teenagers goofing around in the lake at Hogwarts. The stoicism etched into their faces, particularly in Rebecca's eyes, showed the toll the war had taken on both of them.

When looking up at his godfather, Remus caught his eye, and Harry knew he wasn't the only one thinking along those same lines. Sirius, however, was staring at the picture.

"Her brother took that picture," he said quietly. "He was killed by Death Eaters three weeks after this was taken." Sighing, Sirius took a long drink of FireWhisky.

As that was the last picture, Remus began collecting them all back up into the envelope.

Watching his godfather, Harry asked softly, "What happened to Rebecca?"

Sirius had that far off look in his eyes again, eyes that still had not lost the haunted look Azkaban had given them. Remus was the one that answered, though his eyes did not leave his friend.

"She disappeared a few months after James and Lily were killed."

"She died?"

"No one knows," Sirius replied hoarsely, staring at his glass of FireWhisky. There was something in his voice that Harry couldn't quite understand, but apparently Remus did.

"She never believed you were guilty." Remus's voice was barely a whisper, but it achieved the desired effect. Sirius looked up and met his friend's eyes. "She didn't what had really happened, but she knew you hadn't turned."

The look that passed between the two men was one of silent, sorrowful understanding.

Watching them, Harry thought back to the first picture of the four young boys, and how two of them were the same men that were sitting before him. If he hadn't know they were the same boys from the picture, Harry wouldn't have recognized them. He wondered, if he was still alive in twenty years, whether he would be recognizable as the same person in pictures of himself from today, whether his eyes would have the same sorrowful look as Remus's eyes, or the stoicism he'd seen in Rebecca's, or the haunted look that seemed ever present in Sirius's.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! As always reviews are greatly appreciated!**


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